The Wedding Present Cup

      Group 7 Gazebo Shatner Let Him Have It Fleshworld Lead 524 Fidelio The Loneliest Time Of The Year Don't Laugh  She's My Best Friend Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk What Did Your Last Servant Die Of? Unfaithful Broken Bow La La La Don't Talk, Just Kiss Sucker The Results This was one of those rounds where the panel found it challenging to identify songs that should get a zero. As Harry remarked, 'The hardest yet as I wanted to give points to everything... there isn't a real duffer among them.' The points were certainly distibuted more widely this time: previously, the top four have managed 100+ in nearly every group; here, only two tracks reached three figures. Interestingly, five of the eight qualifiers were non-LP tracks. One of them,  'Don't Talk, Just Kiss' , triumphed by an impressively wide margin. 'What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?' was a comfortable second - 'the kind of story telling that brings out the best of ...

     Group 6 Once Bitten Don't Touch That Dial Step Inside Love  Meet Cute White Riot Always The Quiet One Peek-a-boo Box Elder The Girl From the DDR Undercurrent Pinch, Twist, Pull, Release Ringway To Seatac Spangle We All Came From The Sea You Jane Birdsnest The Results 'Box Elder' became only the fourth cover to make it into the next stage, getting decent marks from the majority of voters. This included a maximum 12 from Mike, who confessed that he didn't even know it was a cover when he first heard it. Keg had 'nostalgic affection' for the track, although he couldn't find it a point and declared the Pavement original to be superior.  It was a familiar story with the remainder of the cover versions in this group, however, all of which found themselves towards the foot of the table. TWP's take on 'Undercurrent' , a 1963 track by Richie Allen & the Pacific Surfers which appeared on a 7" flexi-disc in 1993, left the panel unimpressed...

    Group 5 Unthinking What Have I Said Now? Corduroy Brassneck 50s Journey Into Space Granadaland So Long, Baby Getting Better  Fordland Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) Thanks High Love Machine Perfect Blue Catwoman The Results This group was very different to the last one. In Group 4 , several of the judges found themselves having to award points to songs they didn't very much care for; here, many ended up running out of points for tracks that they would have liked to reward more highly. As Bob, in his inimitable style, put it: 'Another tough round but for different reasons. Whilst the last round had us sifting through rivers of sh*t to find an elusive nugget, this one was chock full of belters.' For the fourth time in five rounds, there was a cover version languishing at the foot of the table with zero points. This time it was TWP's take on The Cure's 'High' , recorded for a 2008 VA compilation . Gricey had never heard it before, and found it 'quit...